Juniata MVB closes 2012 regular season with romp over Sacred Heart

HUNTINGDON, Pa. – Juniata College men's volleyball hit .460 for the match while holding visiting Sacred Heart University to a .062 attack clip, and closed out the 2012 regular season with a 3-0 win over the Division I Pioneers on Saturday afternoon at the Kennedy Sports + Recreation Center.

Set scores for Juniata were 25-23, 25-11, and 25-15.

Juniata (27-9) was paced by outside hitter Ross Madden (Richmond, Va./Deep Run) with 12 kills on 18 swings for a .556 hitting percentage, to go with seven block assists on his way to a team high 16.5 points. 

Middle Ben Wolff (Meadville, Pa./Meadville) anchored the Eagles at the net with nine total blocks, three of which were solos, to go with seven kills to finish with 13.0 points. Wolff hit .778 for the match, leading a Juniata squad that thoroughly outhit its opponents over the entire match and finished with a .722 attack percentage in the third set.

The Eagles committed just six attack errors over the entire match.

John Almquist (York, Pa./Central York) and Rob Strauss (Penn Hills, Pa./Penn Hills) both set the Eagle attack, with Strauss logging 16 assists while Almquist tallied 11. Defensively, Juniata amassed 23 digs, paced by Mike Kraft (York, Pa./Eastern York) with six.

Sacred Heart (5-19) was paced by Nick Hunt with 11 kills, but he committed nine errors among his 27 attacks on his way to a .074 hitting percentage. Will LeClerc charted five kills in the loss.  Adrian Fernandez turned up nine of the Pioneers' 20 digs.

Juniata will return to action on Saturday, April 14, when it faces the winner of the Thiel College vs. UC-Santa Cruz match in the semifinals of the 2012 Continental Volleyball Conference Tournament. Start time for Juniata's semifinal will be 11:00 a.m.

-30-